John Brennan, Obama’s choice to head the CIA, faces a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Thursday, setting the stage for a public airing of some of the most controversial programs in the war on terror. Here is our live blog.

Senators, though, want proof of Brennan’s opposition to the use of waterboards, slapping, sleep deprivation, stressful positions, yelling, loud music and so forth. Sen. John McCain, for instance, wants to know if he put his objections in writing, and to whom he voiced them.

Sen. Susan Collins has suggested Brennan has been inconsistent on the subject, because he once said harsh methods saved lives. Those harsh methods have been banned, and interrogations now must follow the Army Field Manual, which allows interrogators to mislead subjects and vaguely threaten them, but not to physically abuse them.

Protesters are gathered in the audience. They are holding signs that say “Stop Drone Killing” and “Drones Fly Children Die.” Other posters read “Brennan = Drone Killing” and “Brennan National Security Risk.”

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, once the chairman of the Intelligence committee, says on MSNBC that Brennan “had no idea” what the CIA was up to with enhanced interrogations.

The committee produced a report thousands of pages long, and Brennan has read a few hundred pages of it, Rockefeller says. Rockefeller’s conclusion, which he indicated is shared by Brennan, is that the CIA was “running amok” with the harsh methods.

And drones will be a big issue too, of course. As we get started, protestors surround Mr. Brennan before being moved away by police officers. “Assassination is against the constitution,” shouts a protester. “Clear the room,” says Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the chairman of the panel, opens the hearing by insisting that the audience be respectful. She says that Mr. Brennan would be the first director to have risen through the CIA’s ranks since Bob Gates.

Ms. Feinstein comes out with supportive words for Mr. Brennan. She says he is “without a doubt qualified for this position.” She also brings up the thorny issue of a legal memorandum justifying targeted killings. But she says the number of people killed each year has “typically been in the single digits.”

The hearing is shaping up to be a long one. Ms. Feinstein says there will be rounds of questions of eight minutes each. She also says that if any responses need to be classified, the committee will go into closed session after the hearing if it is able to do so. If not, there will be a closed session on Tuesday, she says.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.), the vice chairman of the panel, says he wants to know more “unnecessary” and “legally questionable obstacles” to receiving oversight information from the intelligence community. He also wants Mr. Brennan to “set the record straight on a few matters related to detention policies” and the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. He says the current framework “is simply not working.”

Here is some more on the protests: The mood in the room was tense from the outset as dozens of protestors filled the audience holding signs condemning killing and torture. Protestors disrupted Mr. Brennan just words into his opening statement, and made plain their objection to U.S. drone policy. One by one, they popped up from the audience, with a new protester sprouting up for each one thrown out. “We’re making more enemies!” shouted a woman protestor. “Please remove that woman,” Ms. Feinstein said sternly before halting the hearing to clear the room of dozens of protestors whose pink signs indicated thy were affiliated with Code Pink

Ms. Feinstein, as the most senior member of the panel, starts off the hearing questioning the Obama administration’s decision to withhold documents amid a brouhaha over White House resistance to sharing a document outlining the legal basis for targeted killings. “It makes our job to interpret what is legal or not legal much more difficult if we do not have those opinions,” Ms. Feinstein says. She asks Mr. Brennan to be an advocate within the administration to help the committee obtain some additional documents. Mr. Brennan says he will make sure the committee gets the documents it needs – an answer that could potentially leave open some wiggle room.

Mr. Brennan says he did not take steps to stop the CIA’s use of certain interrogation techniques like waterboarding, saying he was not in the chain of command of the program. He said he expressed “personal objections,” but “I did not try to stop it because it was something that was being done in different part of the agency.” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) is skeptical, asking why Mr. Brennan was included in emails about the progress of the interrogation of a particular target if he was so out of the loop.

Mr. Chambliss also presses Mr. Brennan, saying, “Your view seems to be that even if we could save American lives by detaining more terrorists,” it “would be better to kill them with a drone or let them go free.” Mr. Brennan disputes that. “I never believe it is better to kill a terrorist than to detain them.”

A theme is developing: The senators want more access to information, and Mr. Brennan is being careful not to overpromise. Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) says the committee may at times need raw intelligence in order to judge the accuracy of reports that go to the committee. Mr. Brennan promises to give every request from the committee for information “full consideration.”

Sen. Burr also complains about access to information about an attack in Benghazi, and wants a promise that refusals to share documents will not happen again. Mr. Brennan says he will do “everything in my ability and my authority to be able to reach an accommodation with this committee.” But he says there is a reason that the founding fathers separated the powers of the executive and legislative branches. “They also gave us the power of the purse,” Mr. Burr says in a veiled threat.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) is still pretty furious with the Obama administration over granting access to documents outlining the legal basis for targeted killings. The White House promised to allow Intelligence Committee members to see the documents. But Mr. Wyden says he is concerned that the Justice Department is not following through on the promise. He says that when he went to read the opinions this morning, it was not clear that what was promised was actually provided to lawmakers.

Mr. Brennan says there are legal boundaries within which the CIA may operate. “It doesn’t mean that we operate at those outer boundaries,” he says. I think the American people would be quite pleased to know we’ve been very disciplined, very judicious.” The powers are used only “as a last resort,” he says. Mr. Wyden also asks what happens if America accidentally kills the wrong person. “I think we need to acknowledge it,” Mr. Brennan says.

Sen. James Risch (R., Idaho) accuses Mr. Brennan of leaking sensitive information about an operation that had not yet been concluded related to Ibrahim al Asiri, a top bomb maker for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and an IED threat. “It seems to me that the leak that the Justice Department is looking for is right here in front of us,” Mr. Risch says. “I disagree with you vehemently, Senator,” Mr. Brennan replied.

Except for Leon Panetta, “I feel I’ve been jerked around by every CIA director,” says Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.), summing up the trust gap that exists between Congress and the CIA. Mr. Brennan responds that he will be an honest broker. “Honesty is the best policy,” Mr. Brennan says.

Sen. Carl Levin asks Mr. Brennan if he believes waterboarding is torture. Mr. Brennan says it is reprehensible and should not have happened, and would not be brought back if he becomes CIA director. He won’t address whether it is torture, avoiding wading into legal definitions of torture. He noted that the attorney general has referred to waterboarding as torture.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) says the detention and release of a Benghazi terror suspect shows that U.S. cooperation with foreign partners such as Tunisia isn’t working. Mr. Brennan says no, that the incident shows Tunisia is following its laws, like Americans follow their laws.

Programming Note: Sen. Feinstein says they will now do another round of questions, with five minutes per question (down from eight minutes for the first round). The classified portion of the hearing will be held next Tuesday, she says.

In answer to questions from Sen. Mark Warner(D., Va.), Mr. Brennan said that in a fiscally constrained environment, the U.S. must make sure every dollar dedicated to intelligence is used effectively. He suggested that the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan could free up some resources, but that the military, the CIA and other agencies must work together to provide integrated and complementary services.

More on Tunisia: Sen. Rubio is upset with the U. S. decision to rely on Tunisia to obtain information from a person suspected of having a role in the attack in Benghazi. Tunisia released the suspect, saying its laws did not permit him to be further detained. “You’re fully comfortable with his notion that because the Tunisians concluded that they didn’t have the legal basis to hold him, we now lost the opportunity to interrogate someone who could have provided us with significant information on the attack in Benghazi?” Mr. Rubio asks.

Mr. Brennan said America “really needs to make sure that we are setting the standard and example for the world as far as the basis” it is using. “We want to make sure that we have the basis to do it” so the country doesn’t get challenged in the future.

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) raises concerns about whether drone attacks are creating a backlash. “I think that is something that we have to be very mindful of,” Mr. Brennan says. But he adds that many of the people in areas that are subject to strikes are “being held hostage” to al Qaeda and appreciate the U.S. involvement.

Ms. Collins also asks why the Obama administration quickly released memos about the treatment of detainees under the Bush administration, but was slow to release documents about the legal justification for targeted killings.

“Both are absolutely essential to the ability of Congress to carry out its oversight abilities,” she says. But Mr. Brennan said he didn’t think there was a double standard, noting that one program was over while another was ongoing.

Sen. Angus King (I., Maine) proposes some type of FISA-like process – referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and court approval — in cases where American citizens are to be subject to targeted killings. “At least that would be some check on the activities of the executive,” Mr. King says. “It’s certainly worthy of discussion,” Mr. Brennan says, but adds that decisions to target Americans are different because the U.S. is dealing with threats that are serious and imminent, and would be acting with strong evidence.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the Intelligence Committee chairman, wants to know more about Anwar al-Awlaki, an American who was a top operative in al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch and was killed in a 2011 drone strike. She asks whether he was connected to the man who tried to blow up a plane over Detroit. Mr. Brennan says “yes” there was a connection but he declined to explain what it was.

“What people will forget is that they will kill us if they can,” Ms. Feinstein says. She asks whether Mr. Al-Awlaki could have been arrested where he was. Mr. Brennan suggests that would have been hard.

The killing of Mr. Awlaki, in a joint operation between the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, renewed a debate over the legality of targeting American terrorist suspects.

Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) wants assurances that Mr. Brennan won’t be political — that he will be CIA’s representative to the White House, not White House’s representative to CIA. He says that he will.

In her questions, Ms. Collins said she has heard from some people within the CIA who are concerned about whether Mr. Brennan’s most recent job advising Mr. Obama will trump his years of experience in the CIA. “Which John Brennan are they going to get?” Ms. Collins asked. “The concern is that they want to hear that you’re going to be the CIA’s representative to the White House, not the White House’s representative to the CIA.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) asks whether the U.S. president should provide an American who is the subject of a targeted killing an opportunity to surrender. Mr. Brennan said that any American who joins al Qaeda should already know that “that they in fact are part of an enemy against us” and the U.S. will “do everything possible to destroy the enemy and save lives.”

Mr. Wyden says that senators need to see all the legal analysis justifying targeted killings before they vote on whether to confirm Mr. Brennan.

Its official Republicans are pro life, thats pro life for known terrorists.Next thing you know they,ll give them a tax break!!

7:18 pm February 7, 2013

Jim wrote:

Is this person pro gun control? If so then if we can save just one life then we should consider disarming a nation!

7:10 pm February 7, 2013

James RL wrote:

Some really sick hate filled puppies in this comment section. Brennan resigned in protest over questionable techniques used, like water boarding in 2005. The president is facing asymmetrical warfare with the tools he has been given by Congress. He is attempting to remove terrorists with as little sacrifice of Americans as possible. The president needs established protocol from Congress in order to adjudicate drone strikes, something the Congress has had plenty of time to do, but, as usual, has done nothing. I'm sure the Congress was shocked how soon the intelligence papers were sent by Obama, proving he wants clarity on this and action from Congress. If anyone wants clarity on drone strikes, take your outrage out on Congress. Get those letters, emails and phone calls, going!

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